Neil Herman

Story

Neil runs a long standing writer's night in Greenwich Village at the Duplex, as well as having a publishing deal in Nashville. We got together around the time of that I was pitching songs to "Urban Cowboy" and actually wrote a title song that was pretty good but unfortunately never made it into the score (after originally seeking submissions, they ultimately decided against including a song titled "Urban Cowboy" in the final production.) Around the same time I pitched a hook to Neil that we massaged into "After Emily." It became a song about a wild road trip across country that the singer took with a totally charismatic girl he picked up hitching. The journey changed his life, and Neil and I filled in the details by Googling "roadside attractions" along a route between Nashville and LA.

"In Iowa there's a Field of Dreams, Kansas a giant ball of string, and a place they stack old cars just like Stonehenge."

The last reference is to Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska where we discovered that someone has recreated Stonehenge completely out of junk automobiles. At the end of the journey, Emily vanishes as suddenly as she appeared, but as the narrator wistfully recounts, "My life will never be the same, after Emily."

By the way, if you want to attend a wonderful writer's night that is a tribute to Neil's dedication to songwriting and songwriters, stop by the Duplex on Christopher Street for his monthly gathering where, like the Bluebird, the audience listens to every word and truly appreciate songwriting. Neil opens the evening with a few of his well crafted songs, and he has made sure over the years that the quality of the writers who perform there are a cut above.